Expedition report:

The full expedition report is available for download as a
PDF (168kb).

Summary

Yunnan 2002 was a 4-man, 8-week expedition to the north of Yunnan
Province, China, aliated to the Hong Meigui Cave Exploration Society. The expedition
looked at substantially new potential caving areas, carrying out a large
amount of surface reconnaissance work across a wide area of the province, with
a particular interest in areas with depth potentials in excess of 1500m.

The expedition had its work cut out. Topographic and geological maps suggested
several areas as potentially interesting from a speleological point of view,
but for the vast majority, very little more was known by the caving community or
by researchers at the Yunnan Geographical Institute. It was a case of looking and
seeing, and the small and highly motivated team spent most of its time travelling
in separate teams of two for efficiency's sake, walking the mountains and valleys
and riding the bus routes to piece together a caverís assessment of the area.

The expeditionís major success story lies in a mountain range 10km west of
the town of Zhongdian. Following early signs of promise in this area, Yunnan
2002 devoted some 64 man days - over a third of its manpower - to this
mountain range. A lack of detailed maps, steep ground, high altitude and a
large area to cover combined to make reconnaissance in this area, as in so many
others, extremely hard work. The rewards lie in two caves found at an altitude
of 4200m, one still going as of October 2002, and a large resurgence at the level
of the Jinsha Jiang (Yangtze) some 2200m below, leaving extremely exciting
exploration prospects for 2003. We will be back!